


To Neverwhere And Back

by impossiblesongs



Series: Pages Left To Write On (We Will Fill It With Words) [7]
Category: Doctor Who
Genre: Episode: 2013 Xmas The Time of the Doctor, Episode: s05e05 Flesh and Stone, Episode: s05e09 Cold Blood, Episode: s05e13 The Big Bang, Gen, I live a Pond Appreciation Life, because the Cracks in the Universe storyline is totally not confusing at all, truth is I just wanted an excuse to have more Centurion!Rory idgaf
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-01-17
Updated: 2015-01-17
Packaged: 2018-03-07 22:09:33
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,222
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3185009
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/impossiblesongs/pseuds/impossiblesongs
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p><i>The Tardis had wanted her to be ready.</i> – Clara goes to many places while she’s stuck time-travelling outside of the Tardis doors, even to places that never existed, but mainly where those long dead still reside.</p>
            </blockquote>





	To Neverwhere And Back

**Author's Note:**

> **Disclaimer:** Not my characters. This has been a disclaimer.  
>  **AN:** So, perhaps not my best of ideas but it is what it is. It takes place in _The Time of The Doctor_ for Clara. Specifics for every section at end of notes.

 

-          _What are you doing here?_

-          **I was in space.**

-          _Well, you were in the time vortex. She must have extended the force field. No wonder. No wonder she's late, dragging you around._

Eleventh Doctor & Clara, Doctor Who ( _The Time Of The Doctor)_

* * *

 

 

**1.**

 

Landing for the first time, Clara notices the crack almost instantly. A split in the skin of reality, the Doctor had told her it, back on Trenzalore, where he’d sent her away from. Again, and after he’d gone and promised her he wouldn’t.

 

It stings, yeah, and she’d cold. And she’s god know where, crying. Then she notices the body.

 

She lets go of the Tardis key she’d barely managed to jam into the lock and rushes over. The man, he’s rather young… and he’s cold. Dead, she realizes, to her horror.

 

“Oh, god,” she cups her palm over her mouth and cries harder. She can’t help thinking of the Doctor, and how much he needs her now. Why did he send her away? Why?

 

She rests her hand over this stranger’s chest. This stranger with the vest and a plaid shirt and a nose bigger than it has any right to be, and she weeps for him and for the Doctor.

 

“I’m sorry this happened to you,” Clara says, hoping it means something and that it will matter somehow. “I don’t know why or how, but I’m sorry.”

 

She hears the Tardis dematerializing and hurries back towards the blue box, getting stuck on the outside, yet again, in too much a state to notice how some of the Tardis’s energy wanders over to the body of a dead Rory Williams, cradling him entirely. Too caught up in not being left behind is Clara, that she completely misses the body disappearing along with them.

 

//

 

Rory Williams wakes with a gasp in a different time, a different place, unaware of how exactly he got there and why becoming a Roman Centurion comes so easily to him.

 

 

**2.**

 

Next thing she knows, she’s in a forest. Shades blur by at every blink. It’s instinct that has her pressing her back against the blue box as much as she can, then she hears it. Voices, one familiar.

 

“It's a warning.” Says the Doctor, his voice sounding muted and dulled. “There are Angels around you now."

 

Clara’s eyes widen and at that information given, she’s not tempted to move an inch.

 

“Amy,” the Doctor calls, sounding desperate, “listen to me. This is going to be hard but I know.”

 

Clara blinks without meaning to and she feels the absent presence of _something_ lurking there, waiting.

 

“You can do it.” she hears the Doctor urge, not to her, no, but it still helps.

 

“The Angels are scared.” He goes on, “And running, and right now they're not that interested in you. They'll assume you can see them and their instincts will kick in. All you've got to do is walk like you can see. Just don't open your eyes.”

 

Clara shuts her eyes instantly and swirls back around, pressing her face to the blue doors and breaking out in a sob, wishing them far, far away.

 

The _whoosh_ of time gathers around her, and the Tardis is off again.

 

 

**3.**

 

“Don’t move,” comes a voice from behind her, something more than sharp jabbing at her back. “Who are you?”

 

Clara sniffs, “My name is Clara. Clara Oswald.”

 

“You’re crying.” It’s a statement, not a question, but whatever pointy thing was poking at her, it’s gone now. “Turn around,” the unknown orders her, “slowly. And hands up where I can see them.”

 

Clara nods, turning around with her hands up in surrender.

 

The stranger is in Roman dress. His face is hidden in the shadows but he looks familiar. He’s still got his sword at the ready, though. Just in case. There’s a big box behind him, too. He seems to be guarding it.

 

“You’re dressed rather odd for the times.” Says the Roman casually. “And bowties, seriously?”

 

“I got this half priced!” she defends her attire, stunned by the abruptness of her own defense. “I mean,” she frowns and then more tears are welling up behind her eyelids. “It was for a friend. For a laugh. It… it was Christmas.” She finishes, miserably.

 

The Roman lowers his sword, placing it back in its scabbard.

 

“This friend of yours,” says the Roman carefully, tipping his head in motion to the Tardis, “doesn't happen to be the driver, is he?”

 

“You… you know the Doctor?”

 

The Roman snorts and moves away, “Understatement of too many centuries, in his case anyway.”

 

The light from the fires set around the gigantic box catch at the tip of his nose just barely and Clara gasps, recognizing that nose instantly.

 

The Roman’s eyes are back on her, assessing her abrupt reaction with suspicious eyes. “Problem?” His hand slowly moves back to the tip of his sword.

 

“No,” Clara says hurriedly. “No, I  just… I, I just remembered something. I’m a bit sudden with things like that. Sorry.”

 

The Roman relaxes.

 

“So, what’s your name?” Clara wonders, adds, “Since I already told you mine and all.”

 

“Yes,” The Roman smiles an odd smile, “I suppose you did. My name is Rory.”

 

It’s like a flicker goes on in her head. _Amy. Rory._

“Oh, god!” She blurts, backing away and right into the Tardis doors.

 

The Tardis takes this as a sign to pop off again, Rory’s hand reaching out, only in time to grasp at nothing.

 

 

**4.**

 

_I’m sorry my love. I’m sorry my love. I’m sorry my love._

_(…)_

_Hi, honey. I’m home._

_(…)_

_And what sort of time do you call this?_

 

_(...)_

 

Clara finds herself in another sort of Tardis, homey and alight with a warming color. It’s all so different. So alive.

 

She wanders around the console, this one being so unknown to her, and notices the screen in the monitor is cracked. She reaches a hand up to press at it and gets a nasty shock for it. The force goes right through her and sends her collapsing onto the glass floor.

 

“Why are you doing this?!” she shouts at the machine, scared out of her wits.

 

“Silence will fall,” announces the woman now standing to her side.

 

River Song, or the data ghost of her. 

 

“What’s happening?” Clara asks, tearfully.

 

“You are at the heart of the explosion, as was I, a very long time ago.” River explains. “Any second now, the Doctor will fly the Pandorica into the Tardis and the universe will start all over again.”

 

Clara holds her aching hand to her chest and tries to stop the tears that seem to keep on falling.

 

“She’s showing you,” River tells her, kneeling down beside Clara. “She wants you to be ready when she takes you back, because he’ll need you, and because there’s not one of us left.”

 

There’s a burst of light, and it blinds.

 

 

**5.**

 

 _He’s fine_ , Clara thinks when she finally sets eyes on him, _he’s absolutely alright._

 

“Doctor!” she exclaims, the worry in her abating and settling itself down. “You're young again. You're okay. You didn't even change your face.”

 

He looks at her, and says, “It’s started." 

 

The Tardis wanted her to be ready, but, “Please don’t change,” she begs, in the end. Because who'd ever be ready for this?

**Author's Note:**

> 1\. Rory’s first death (Cold Blood)  
> 2\. Amy alone in the forest (Flesh and Stone)  
> 3\. Rory guarding the Pandorica (The Big Bang)  
> 4\. inside the Tardis, before the Pandorica crashes into it (The Big Bang)  
> 5\. Eleven regenerates (Time of The Doctor)


End file.
